Robot does cleanup test run at Japan's shuttered Fukushima nuclear power plant

By STORM GIFFORD

|NEW YORK DAILY NEWS|

Feb 14, 2019 | 6:40 PM

A staff member of Tokyo Electric Power Company measures radiation levels at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. (KIMIMASA MAYAMA / AFP/Getty Images)

Amid the radioactive ruins of a shuttered Japanese nuclear power plant, a robotic arm was able to lift tiny radioactive fuel chunks.

While that may not seem like an impressive feat, the successful venture at the Fukushima Daiichi building — located about 150 miles north of Tokyo — is a positive indicator that the abandoned facility will eventually receive a thorough scouring in 2021, officials said on Thursday.

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“We were able to confirm that the fuel debris can be moved,” said spokeswoman Yuka Matsubara. “We accomplished the objective of this test,” she told Agence France-Presse, adding the company hopes to remove some fuel debris next year.

On Wednesday, Tokyo Electric Power utilized a remote-controlled probe to get to the fuel at the bottom of one of the plant’s reactors that melted down after a devastating 2011 earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

It was able to grab five small pieces of the fuel debris and lift them about two inches.

The two-pronged robotic hand picking up radioactive debris at the bottom of a Fukushima reactor. (TEPCO)

Robots have already peered inside the reactor to allow experts to assess the melted fuel visually, but Wednesday’s test was to test just how radioactive the material is.

Evacuating the melted fuel will be the most challenging aspect of the massive operation.

While a full-fledged cleanup isn’t expected to begin until 2021, Tokyo Electric Power has other issues to deal with including how to dispose of large quantities of contaminated water stored at the plant site.

The tsunami that caused the meltdown was triggered by a massive undersea quake that killed approximately 18,000 people, while tens of thousands of nearby residents were forced to evacuate their homes due to radiation fears.